Speakers

Miriam F. Williams, Keynote Speaker

Miriam F. Williams, Ph.D. is Presidential Fellow and Associate Professor of English at Texas State University.  She received a B.S. in Economics and M.A. in Public Administration from the University of Houston, M.A. in Technical Communication from Texas State University, and Ph.D. in Technical Communication and Rhetoric from Texas Tech University.  Prior to her career in academia, she worked as an inspector, policy analyst, policy editor, and program administrator for State of Texas regulatory agencies.  Her work in government agencies informs her research, which focuses on public policy writing, intercultural communication, and ethics in technical communication.  Her selected publications include the co-authored Writing for the Government, which is part of the Allyn & Bacon Series in Technical Communication and her monograph, From Black Codes to Recodification: Removing the Veil from Regulatory Writing, which is part of the Baywood’s Technical Communications Series.  In summer 2012, she co-edited a special issue of the Journal of Business and Technical Communication on Race, Ethnicity, and Technical Communication.  In Spring 2013, she will begin service as Director of Texas State University’s Master of Arts in Technical Communication Program.

 

Angela M. Haas, Plenary Speaker

Angela M. Haas (PhD, Michigan State University; MA & BA, Bowling Green State University) is an assistant professor of rhetoric, technical communication, ethnic, and women’s and gender studies at Illinois State University. Her research interests include cultural rhetorics, digital and visual rhetorics, decolonial theories and methodologies, and transnational feminist, indigenous, and technical communication studies. Among other places, Haas’ work has been published in Studies in American Indian LiteraturesJournal of Business and Technical CommunicationComputers and CompositionPedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture, as well as multiple policy and procedural manuals for several different factories. Haas’s current scholarly and activist work is concerned with bridging her research interests, extensive industry experience (as a subject matter expert and a technical communicator of quality systems regulations and documentation for the automotive industry), and varied teaching experience (undergraduate and graduate technical communication courses, from online documentation and project management to visual rhetoric and cultural studies in technical communication) to work toward social justice in our varied work places and learning spaces.

 

Gary Kaunonen, Plenary Speaker

Gary Kaunonen is a labor, immigration, and social historian with a Masters in Industrial History and Archaeology from Michigan Tech, and is currently a PhD Student in Tech’s Rhetoric and Technical Communication (RTC) Program. In Tech’s RTC program, he is studying the rhetoric of the early 20th century labor movement and the technical writing of labor, public, and social history. Other research interests include: anarchist pedagogies, immigration, industrial communities, material culture of the working class, public history, social justice movements, and working class rhetoric. Kaunonen also works as the Assistant Director of Michigan Tech’s Writing Program and has taught “Introduction to Technical and Scientific Communication” for the Humanities Department.

He has published two books through Michigan State University Press, one winning the 2010 Historical Society of Michigan Book Award. Additionally, he co-authored “Industrial Calumet” for the National Park Service, which won an award from Association of Partners for Public Lands. He is currently working with a co-author on a community and labor history of the 1913-14 Michigan Copper Strike. This book, also being published by Michigan State University Press, is due out Summer 2013.

Before academic life, Kaunonen worked at a plastics factory, charged blast furnaces in an iron foundry, and welded steel and aluminum boat docks. More recently, he did adjunct work at Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College, worked for Keweenaw National Historical Park in the Division of Interpretation and Education, wrote as a freelance historian, and administered historical materials as the Archivist, Historian, and Collections Development Coordinator at Finlandia University’s Finnish American Heritage Center. Last, but certainly not least, he is also an active union member in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) IU 620 (though he is behind on his dues).

 

Raeanne Madison, Plenary Speaker

Raeanne Madison recently graduated from Michigan Technological University with a bachelor’s degree in Scientific and Technical Communication (STC). Raeanne’s primary research interests as an undergraduate student focused on health education for special populations including at-risk adolescents and American Indians. As a member of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa in Nett Lake, Minnesota, cultural competency, and respect for the many ways in which “literacy” is defined and enacted lay at the heart of Raeanne’s studies.

Raeanne has served as a community health educator in a variety of settings: including a local alternative high school, at Powwows across the region, and in local hospitals where she works as a childbirth doula. Raeanne’s involvement in STC is driven by her commitment to holistic well being across the human lifespan.

Raeanne’s passion for education has led her to the University of Michigan School of Public Health, where she is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Health Behavior and Health Education. She has also completed the requirements to become a licensed Emergency Medical Responder. After receiving her master’s degree, Raeanne plans on attending Paramedic school. Her goal is to help rural communities and American Indian reservations develop emergency medicine training and certification programs. She also wants to work with these communities to develop mobile and clinical ambulatory care facilities. Ultimately, Raeanne would like to help American Indian people become effective users and practitioners of culturally competent health care.

 

Flourice W. Richardson, Plenary Speaker

Flourice W. Richardson earned a BA in English and MA in English with a concentration in African-American culture from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, North Carolina.  She also received a certification in Technical Communication from East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. She is currently an advanced doctoral student in English Studies at Illinois State University in Normal, IL.  Richardson is interested in studying the intersections of class, race/ethnicity, gender, and medical rhetoric.

Her studies at Illinois State University have inspired her to investigate how culture and identity are informed by technical communication. Through her research, especially her examination of the Eugenics Movement, she quickly learned the power of communication and how communicative strategies can build or destroy ones agency. Since her primary focus at ISU is to promote concepts of social justice, she feel that my duty as a professor to ensure that voices of the under-represented and served are represented in any curriculum that she designs. Through her research, she acknowledges the historical and cultural perspectives of those whose voices have been ignored by celebrating diversity. In this way, she feels that she is honoring her heritage and building a bridge for future scholars in the field of technical communication.

PERI SCIDAC

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